The leadership, generous support, and unwavering dedication of Mike de Graffenried
During the Reunite Hope EXTENDED Leadership Gathering, on March 30th, Boys Hope Girls Hope will celebrate our 2021/2022 Excellence Awards honorees. Mike de Graffenried will receive our prestigious VATTEROTT AWARD! Named for its inaugural recipient John Vatterott, this award celebrates the legacy and impact of an extraordinary visionary—an exemplary man or woman for others—whose generosity, determination and philanthropic support has sustained the vital work of Boys Hope Girls Hope on behalf of scholars, collegians, and children in need.
Mike de Graffenried took a phone call from a friend about Boys Hope Girls Hope in 2001, and has continued to answer on the first ring ever since for the organization and its scholars.
Mike was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when he got a call from a good friend, Bob Dineen, Jr., who was working with Father Paul Sheridan on several projects at the New York affiliate and for the Network. Mike obliged Bob’s request for a donation to support a fledgling Latin American program.
Little did Mike know this would be the start of a 20-year journey – one in which he has distinguished himself with tremendous leadership, generous support, and unwavering dedication through the inevitable ups and downs of organizational growth. Mike’s immeasurable contributions are being recognized with the 2021 Vatterott Award, celebrating the legacy and impact of extraordinary visionaries who strengthened Boys Hope Girls Hope, its mission, and scholars.
A native New Yorker, Mike was born in Syracuse and grew up in a traditional Irish household outside Utica. Catholic schools played an essential role in his upbringing from kindergarten through law school.
While pursuing his bachelor’s in political science and law degrees at Saint Louis University, Mike found alignment with the Jesuit “persons for others” motto. “The Sixties were a time of great intellectual and political foment,” Mike recalls. “It was an eye-opening time to grow, become my own person, and reflect upon the moral obligations we have to the society we live in.”
At SLU, Mike also met his future wife. Pilar, a native of Colombia, was in the United States on a State Department Scholarship and studying English at SLU. The couple was married in June of 1972 and celebrated nearly 49 years together until Pilar’s passing earlier this year after an extended illness. Their son Chris de Graffenried and his wife Amanda are both professors at Brown University. They have one granddaughter, Sophia.
After SLU, Mike earned a master’s degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and embarked upon a storied career in international business. In 31 years at Citibank, he held progressive leadership roles until retiring for the first time in 2004. That same year, then Boys Hope Girls Hope CEO Paul Minorini recruited Mike to join the Network Board of Directors.
Mike has been a part of many key Boys Hope Girls Hope initiatives, including the launch of Academies and the expansion of Latin American programming. Among the latter highlights was interviewing and hiring Kristin Ostby as Boys Hope Girls Hope’s Director of Latin American Operations. Kristin would go on to succeed Paul as Network President & CEO.
In 2008, Mike came out of retirement to become the founding CEO for Qatar First Investment Bank and shortly after expanded his role with Boys Hope Girls Hope by serving as Network Board Chairman from 2011 to 2016. “I was flying in from New Zealand, Panama, and Hamburg to chair meetings and taking Executive Committee Calls from the apartment on the ship.”
Reflecting upon his long involvement with Boys Hope Girls Hope, Mike said, “I appreciate the real depth of the program and the whole child aspect. It’s been very gratifying to be involved and have an impact in helping kids help themselves.”